"If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough."
-Albert Einstein
I think it's just human nature to have to complicate things. But when you're in the clinic, that is no time to be an academic or philosopher.
I've always harped on clinical results. Working in the clinic is working in the trenches so to speak. This is where the rubber meets the road. Any flowery ideas of acupuncture or Chinese medicine, all the lovely beautiful concepts and theories, they mean nothing. Results are the only thing that matters - and the treatments behind them. While many think this disparages the "art", what it actually is, is putting the patient first. I will never apologize for putting the patient above ideology that doesn't deliver results, and only serves to comfort one's ego.
I've seen so many peeps brag about what they can do. What they know, how they can "control qi", or the degrees they have. Something is always missing in this bragging though - the patient.
Learning is fun, philosophy is extremely interesting, exploring new idea is important. But in the clinic it's all about keeping it simple.
Likewise, how are you explaining things to your patients? Are you lecturing on the differences between acupuncture and dry needling? Are you over explaining how your treatments are helping them? Have you noticed they glaze over after about 30 seconds?
It's best to keep working on your scripts and saying things very direct. Give the patients what they need - results. We excel in the clinic, delivering the tools we've learned. If we're talking, we're not working (unless you can do both at the same time).
And please, keep it simple!
This clip from 2017 sums up one of the biggest issues we see when treating MSK and pain conditions with needles — and also the solution.
The problem is not the lack of different techniques.
The problem is knowing when to use them, why to use them, and when not to use them.
Motor points, trigger points, electroacupuncture, peripheral treatments, central nervous system approaches — all of these can be valuable.
But they are not interchangeable.
The real skill is understanding how to apply those techniques through the lens of neurology, assessment, and clinical reasoning.
That means identifying what type of problem is actually in front of you, determining the most appropriate treatment strategy, and then reassessing to see whether you actually changed what you intended to change.
That is the difference between simply performing a technique and treating with precision.
And that is exactly what the EXSTORE™ Orthopedic System is built to teach.
EXSTORE gives practitioners a complete, ...
@Exstoreman Should I be doing motor points along the forearm? I'd like to treat the scar at some point but it seems like a tricky area for e-stim. Currently using distal points which are helping a bit.
65 yo female had severe laceration to wrist while attempting to catch a falling cup that broke. Injury involved partial transection of median nerve, requiring surgical repair on 10/2/26.
Initially the wrist was stitched and glued, then during surgery they cut through same suture line and the result is a lot of hard adhesions at suture line, especially around HT-7.
Continues to experience numbness in distal half of L ring finger and intense pain at suture.
I have a patient with CRPS of the lower leg. She had a brutal broken leg and was out of the country in an area without modern medical care for 11 days. The leg becomes extremely cold and has burning pain from the knee downward. 1 session of local acupuncture by another practitioner caused a flare that lasted for a long time.
Wondering if perfusion treatment could be a good candidate for her lower leg? Currently using distal acupuncture and auricular but have only seen the patient once.
Thank you for any ideas!
